DACS Foundation Auction

This September, I will be one of a number of artists supporting DACS Foundation, a new charity set up by DACS to support contemporary visual art in the UK. I'm delighted to donate one of my paintings for their forthcoming benefit auction at Paddle8. Bids can be placed online until 9.30pm, Thursday 24 September 2015. The proceeds will importantly go towards funding a range of new initiatives supporting artists in legacy planning and archive management, education and a public programme supporting the continued appreciation of art and its value to society.

Fifty-six artists including Susan Hiller, Ryan Gander and Yinka Shonibare MBE are donating artwork to raise funds for the Foundation's initiatives through the online auction.

Furthermore, seven works will be auctioned by Christie's on 23 September 2015 including artists Richard Wentworth, Billy Childish, Angela de la Cruz, Tracey Emin and Chantal Joffe. The majority of the works (including my painting) will be auctioned on Paddle8 from 10 - 24 September 2015.

All the works will be exhibited in an end of auction party on the evening of 24 September 2015 at Londonewcastle Project Space in Shoreditch, London. A catalogue is published to accompany the auction.

View my work on Paddle8. I am donating Broken Symmetry III. You can make bids online: https://paddle8.com/work/julie-umerle/78360-broken-symmetry-iii should you wish to support the Foundation. Thank you.

© Julie Umerle

'ART/Converters!' 2015

'Art Converters' 2015 kicks off at studio1.1 in London from 2 April - 26 April 2015 (closed Friday 3 April).

A fundraiser group show to support the gallery, all artists work will be available at just £200 per piece.

Artists include:

ALEXANDER BUHLER, ALICE PEILLON, ANDREW GRAVES, ANDREW SETO, BENJAMIN DEAKIN, BRIDGET JACKSON, CHARLES WILLIAMS, CHRISTOPHER BOND, CLAUDIA BOESE, DAVID SMALL,  JOSHUA RAFFELL, JULIE UMERLE, KARL BIELIK, KATE LYDDON,  LUCIA VERA, LUCINDA OESTREICHER, MANDY WILLIAMS, MANUELA VIEZZER, MARCUS COPE, MARIANNE MORILD, MICHAEL BARTLETT, MICHAELA ZIMMER, MARTIN GAYFORD, MICHAEL HAMMOND, NATASHA KAHN, NATHAN EASTWOOD, OONA GRIMES, PETER SYLVEIRE, RACHELLE ALLEN SHERWOOD, RALPH DOREY, KERAN JAMES, REBECCA MEANLEY, RICHARD BATEMAN, ROBERT CERVERA, ROBIN SEIR, ROSS WALKER, ROXY TOPIA & PADDY GOULD, RUTH CALLAND, RUTH PHILO, SACHA MEADEN, SARAH KNILL-JONES, SARAH McNULTY, STEPHANIE MORAN, STEPHEN BUCKERIDGE, STUART BARNES, WILLIAM STEIN

studio1.1 is at 57a Redchurch Street, London E2 7DJ
Website: www.studio1-1.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)7952 986 696.
Open: Wednesday - Sunday, 12 noon to 6pm.
Email: studio1-1.gallery@virgin.net

Fire Station Centenary

Fire Station Centenary
Open Weekend
Saturday 21st May and Sunday 22nd May 2011

ACME Studios, 30 Gillender Street, London E14 6RH

Hours: 12pm - 6pm daily   
Nearest tube: Bromley-by-Bow on the District Line

This will be the first 'open' studios event at the Fire Station since 2007. Fifteen artists will be opening their studios to the public to celebrate one hundred years of the building.

Artists participating in this event: Briony Anderson, Gemma Anderson, Kate Atkin, Jonathan Baldock, George Charman, Melanie Clifford, Susan Corke, Richard Ducker, Robin Footitt, Haroon Mirza, Matthew Noel-Tod, David Osbaldeston, Emma Smith, Julie Umerle and Andre Wallace.

The building is a former L.C.C. Fire Station, constructed in 1911, and converted to artists' studios in 1997.

Hope you will visit my studio (studio F on the ground floor) to see my new work.

Look forward to seeing you there. All welcome!

Hello Paris!!!

One of my readers has suggested I post up pics of some paintings sold at the beginning of this year (nice idea) - always happy to oblige! So here is one of the two paintings which are now in Paris. The other painting is still here in London, at the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair.

Red/Yellow II, 60 x 72in, acrylic on canvas

©Julie Umerle. All rights reserved

2011

Halfway through the first month of the new year already. Working on paper in my studio at the moment (oil and acrylic on indian rag paper). Just playing around really. Sometimes that's a good thing.

Have a couple of projects lined up for this year which are very exciting. Lots of good things for 2011.

Thanks for reading my blog throughout 2010, and hope you'll continue to do so this year too. I do appreciate your comments, so if you haven't done so yet, please feel free to interact. If you have already done so, look forward to hearing from you again!

One Hour Project

This is a photo taken in my studio (Acme Studios, The Fire Station, London), by Jens Marott as part of his project, One Hour, about artists and their working environments.
 
"One Hour is about artists and their creative space, be it on a houseboat in Hackney or in a council flat on the 11th floor, yet these creative people keep producing art.

There are studios all over England where artists can rent studio spaces at affordable prices, these spaces are either government funded or private run.

I have been lucky to be invited into each artist's creative space, to document who they are and how they work, for one hour."

Jens Marott
http://www.jensmarott.com/gallery_284435.html

Beating the Odds

This weekend, I went to a professional development session with Matt Roberts at his gallery in Vyner Street. Most artists at the early or mid-career stage of their career are looking at ways of moving on to the next level, but it's always useful to have some input whatever stage you're at.

Matt started by asking what my goals were. Easy enough to answer. He looked at some of my paintings and my cv. Apparently, I'm not exhibiting enough to gain exposure for my work. Artists who are successful in promoting their careers often show their work perhaps 8-10 times a year. Me, I am usually happy with one show minimum, and three shows per year would count as a good year. I shall try to aim higher in the future.

I heard that only about 500 artists in London are making a living by their work alone, although there are thousands of artists here, and more art schools and galleries than in any other capital city. With odds like that, it's no wonder that so many artists struggle to survive.

No Soul for Sale

Yesterday I went to the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern to see 'No Soul for Sale' as part of the Tate's 10th anniversary celebrations (can it really be ten years?) It was a festival of independent galleries, non-profit, alternative spaces and collectives.

Usually the Turbine Hall is home to the Unilever series, showing installations by legendary artists such as  Louise Bourgeois and Anish Kapoor, but this time there was a democratic feel to the vast hall and a festive spirit. There were over 70 international galleries in the hall - many of them have worked on the fringes of the artworld for years. These are the antithesis of commercial galleries, valuing different qualities within the artwork, and presenting and disseminating information in different ways.

Unlike traditional art fairs such as the Armory Show or London Art Fair, each gallery at 'No Soul for Sale' was delineated simply by a taped line on the floor rather than partitioned off from each other, and many galleries seemed to almost collide. The atmosphere in the Turbine Hall on Saturday, the afternoon that I visited, was hectic and the hall thronged with visitors. There were of course opportunities to buy t-shirts or cloth bags, but the sale of artwork was not a premise of this show.

I was particularly looking out for the two galleries I had previously shown with - Artist's Space from New York and studio1.1 from London. Indeed, apart from these two galleries, it was only White Columns and Swiss Institute, both from New York, that I knew. It felt as though for once a different voice was being heard at the Tate, and one which is so often overlooked. More events like this please!

A life of its own

Someone contacted me recently through my website about two large paintings she'd bought of mine about nine years ago. She sent me jpgs of the work and I immediately recognized the paintings. They were from a batch of work I'd consigned to a skip in 2001 when I'd moved from a large studio complex in London at Acme Studios, Carpenters Road, Stratford.

And those are not the first of the paintings that have since been resurrected from the skip. A couple of years ago another person contacted me about an early piece of work, which was from the very same batch of paintings I'd tried to discard.

When the studios closed, due to redevelopment of the area, many of the artists were sifting through their paintings which had accumulated over the years, having to make decisions about what to keep and what to discard. Some artists had to put work into storage, or just didn't have room in their new studios to take everything.

A friend helped me sort through my work. All the paintings I felt I could live without, being documented on slide, were discarded. I guess I must have consigned about ten paintings to one of the skips in the yard.

But I discovered that the work has a life of its own once it leaves the artist's studio, and there is no knowing where it will ultimately find a home. Sometimes a painting will change hands many times, people selling it on or giving the work as gifts.

Despite my best efforts to destroy those early paintings, they are still in the world! I have learnt from this experience - and now I always slash any canvases I wish to discard before I bin them. That way they are well and truly destroyed...

The Fire Station

Painting's going well! Thanks to everyone who's reading my blog and posting comments - it's great to have your feedback.

More about my studio - my studio's in London, in a disused Fire Station built in 1911 for the GLC. It's in an industrial area of the city, near to the Olympic site. When the building first opened as a fire station a hundred years ago, there were horse-drawn fire engines there. The families of the firemen used to live upstairs too, so there's a real sense of history to the building.

There are five floors of studios, overlooking a courtyard on one side and the A12 motorway on the other. The building is just a short distance from Canary Wharf's gleaming towers which can be seen from the road, but it's a world away in every sense. Indeed, a friend visiting from New York remarked how similar the area felt to Long Island City, a similarly urban environment.

There are concrete floors in my studio on the ground floor, and it's freezing cold in winter. Yet it's the best studio I've had so far. I must say that the two studios I worked in when I lived in New York were some of the worst!

Twelve new artists are moving into the studios upstairs next week, and the decorators have been busy for several weeks getting their spaces ready. The residents upstairs change every five years. They live and work there, but my studio is a working space only - about 600 sq ft, with three big windows and a sky light. Four other artists have studios downstairs near me.

When I first left art school, I used to paint at home (not at the kitchen table, but in one of the rooms in my flat) but I soon realized that I prefer to have a separation between home and work. Everyone's practice is different.

I've posted a photo of my studio at the Fire Station above - it does not always look that tidy!

Installation views of 'Cosmos or Chaos'

Simon Morley gallery talk

I am delighted to announce that Simon Morley, who wrote the catalogue essay for my exhibition 'Cosmos or Chaos', will be at studio1.1 on Wednesday 20th January at 3pm to give a talk about the work. The gallery talk will last about 40 minutes, after which there will be an opportunity for questions and informal discussion. I hope you will be able to join us.

Simon is the author of 'Writing on the Wall', and has written for Art Monthly and The Independent on Sunday. He is a painter who has shown his work in London, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Korea, and is represented by Art First. He is a lecturer at Winchester School of Art.

For further information about this event please contact the gallery:

studio1.1
57a Redchurch Street
London E2 7DJ

Website: http://www.studio1-1.co.uk/

Nearest tube: Liverpool Street

'Cosmos or Chaos'

There's an exhibition of my paintings coming  up in the new year in London at studio1.1, a gallery in Shoreditch, entitled 'Cosmos or Chaos'. This will be my first solo exhibition since 2008, and it is supported by Arts Council England, the national development agency for the arts, through its Grants for the arts programme for individuals and organisations. I am really thrilled to have this opportunity to make my work more accessible, and to bring it to the attention of a wider audience. Hope you will come by to say hello and take a look at my new paintings.

Private view: Thursday 7th January, 6-9pm
Exhibition runs from 8 - 24 January 2010

Cosmos or Chaos:  "As the title immediately suggests, Julie Umerle’s paintings exist at the meeting point of decision and accident, as indeed do our lives.

In this series of works, created specifically for the exhibition, gravity and design collude and collide in a synthesis which calls up a most unexpected counterpart. Colours are chosen to oppose and confound, while the exact materiality, the weight of the paint interferes, patterning its own trajectory."

studio1.1
57a Redchurch Street
London  E2 7DJ

Open: Wednesday - Sunday, 12 - 6pm

Website:  http://www.studio1-1.co.uk/

Nearest tube: Liverpool Street

'Watch This Space' Charity Art Auction

Yellow/Red II
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 24in
© Julie Umerle

On December 8th, ‘Watch This Space’ will organise the first Special Yoga Centre auction of young and emerging artists. This will not only give collectors a chance to discover some hot new artists, and support their practice by purchasing their work, it will also raise much needed funds for the Special Yoga Centre. I am delighted to be participating in this event by donating one of my paintings (as above) to the charity auction.

Over the past three years, The Special Yoga Centre has hosted charity art auctions of artworks by some of the country’s most celebrated contemporary artists including: Damien Hirst, Sam Taylor-Wood, Peter Blake and Marc Quinn. The last auction, introduced by Samantha Cameron, and hosted by Gabbi Roslin, raised a staggering £100,000, even more amazing since this event took place in the midst of an economic downturn. A Christie’s auctioneer auctioned off some exquisite pieces, including a spot painting and etchings by Hirst.

Yoga expert and co-author of ‘The Spiritual Teachings of Yoga’ Jo Manuel founded the Special Yoga Centre in 2004 as a charitable organization supporting children with a variety of conditions, which can be aided by the practice of yoga. Children with Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, epilepsy, ADD, ADHD and other physical and developmental difficulties all benefit from the expert teaching offered at the Special Yoga Centre, whose policy is to offer yoga to all without regard to financial or cultural constraints. Children from all walks of life, including the late son of shadow Prime Minister David Cameron, have benefited from the care and teaching of the Special Yoga Centre.

Artists featuring in the auction will include; Andrew Campbell, Ann-Marie James, Arran Gregory, Ben Jenkins, Best One, Cereinyn Ord, Daisy de Villeneuve, Elliott Young, Epoh Beech, Eugene Wood, Graham Hudson, Harry Malt, Ilaria Conte, Izzie Klingels, Julie Umerle, Jim Cooper, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Konrad Wyrebek, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry & Peter Harris, Lee Jones, Louise Richardson, Mat Pringle, Matilda Temperley, Max Parsons, Monkey Punch III, Niall O’Brien, Nick Cunard, Nick Jensen, Peter Edwards, Ricky Adam, Robin Clare, Sam Szulc, Sarah Cooney, Sarah Kate Wilson, Sara le Roy, Sky Sharrock, Sohrab and Suzie Wright.

Frances Outred, European Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie's, will take the auction, with a special celebrity host getting the crowd going. Therefore this event provides an excellent opportunity for collectors to discover exciting new artists. It will also aid the career of these artists (who will receive a percentage of the proceeds), and allow the Special Yoga Centre to continue it’s invaluable practice with the aid of the auction proceeds.

Committee members are:
Damian Barr – The Times
Jonni Fitzgerald – Fashion Stylist
Lucy Meakin – All Visual Arts
Meritaten Mance – Mance & Rose PR
Tiger Savage – Creative Director, M& C Saatchi
Iram Qurashi – Cultural Consultant
Irshaard Ibrahim – Director of Sleep Clinic
Paddy Barstow – ART MOSH
Rachael Barratt – Kultureflash Art Editor
Sydney Levinson – Rhodes & Rhodes

The last auction at the Special Yoga Centre was featured in the Evening Standard, London Paper, Daily Express and Daily Mail. Watch This Space will curate the auction and take care of the PR. Watch This Space have already been featured by BBC News, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Evening Standard, Amelia’s Magazine, MySpace, Art Daily and The London Paper.

For further information go to http://www.watch-this-space.org/

or contact Lee Johnson on lee@watch-this-space.org

or Bakul Pakti on bakul@watch-this-space.org

The Special Yoga Centre, The Tay Building, 2a Wrentham Avenue London NW10